He Used To Do Dangerous Things : Comma Press : 9781912697793 : 1912697793 : 31 Oct 2024 : WINNER OF THE ARTS FOUNDATION AWARD FOR PLACE WRITING A grieving woman tells her counsellor increasingly elaborate and contradictory accounts of the night her partner died... A solitary pensioner, cut off from the world in the depths of lockdown, resorts to sitting in his apartment block's meter room to watch the electricity gauges surge with life... A travelling vending machine operator takes his goldfish with him on his long-haul journeys to alleviate its separation anxiety... The characters in Gaia Holmes' debut fiction collection adopt complex and ingenious mechanisms for processing a world that is at once too close and too far removed, needing to feel the presence of others, whilst also being overwhelmed by it. Whether it's the trauma of the pandemic and its many isolations, or the chaotic, draining lives of loved ones or neighbours, these stories explore the ingenuity of